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Ruby was the reason this book worked so well for me. She’s observant and outspoken, but she isn’t oblivious to the effect her words have on other people. She wants to be herself and still be loved by her father. That vulnerability gives weight to a story full of pranks, disguises and increasingly improbable events.

Gambling also extends beyond the illegal parties. Tyler approaches people as though they're cards to be counted and risks to be calculated. He believes that with enough information, he can predict every response. Stella, Blake, Meg, Richard, and even Tyler himself ultimately refuse to behave according to his calculations.

At first glance, Aurora appears to be simply another fantasy heroine trapped by circumstance. She's a princess whose future has already been decided for her, promised in marriage to a man she neither loves nor trusts. Her life is governed by duty, expectation, and obedience. Every choice has already been made on her behalf.

Ali Hazelwood has built an entire literary empire out of highly intelligent women, emotionally constipated men, and workplaces vibrating with unresolved tension, and Two Can Play slides neatly into that lineage. This time, though, the setting shifts from laboratories and academia into the world of video game development, painted as a landscape of crunch culture, professional rivalry, creative obsession, and people surviving almost entirely on caffeine and bad sleep schedules.